WLF Reading List 2024

sibkron

Active member
January

01 🇵🇹 Bernardim Ribeiro, História de menina e moça+
02 🇺🇸 Djuna Barnes, Nightwood+
03 🇺🇸 Djuna Barnes, The Book of Repulsive Women: 8 Rhythms and 5 Drawings+
04 🇪🇸 Jorge de Montemayor, Diana+
05 🇧🇴 Liliana Colanzi, Our Dead World+
06 🇪🇪 Andrei Ivanov, The Bathyscaphe+
07 🇳🇴 Jon Fosse, Trilogy+
08 🇺🇸 Djuna Barnes, Ladies Almanack+

February

09 🇫🇷 Jacques Derrida, Positions+
10 🇧🇴 Giovanna Rivero, Fresh Dirt from the Grave+
11 🇳🇴 Tor Ulven, Replacement+

March

12 🇪🇸 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote+
13 🇺🇸 Harold Bloom, The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry
14 🇺🇸 Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages
15 🇧🇴 Liliana Colanzi, You Glow in the Dark+
16 🇷🇺 Ekaterina Sherga, The Underground Ship
17 🇧🇴 Jaime Sáenz, Felipe Delgado
18 🇨🇭 Max Frisch, Leaves from the Bread Bag+
19 🇨🇭 Max Frisch, I'm Not Stiller+

April

20 🇦🇷 Juan Filloy, Op Oloop+
21 🇺🇸 George Salis, Sea Above, Sun Below+
22 🇸🇪 Aase Berg, Dark Matter+
23 🇨🇦 Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red
24 🇨🇦 Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet+
25 🇫🇷 Georges Perec, Life: A User's Manual+

May

26 🇷🇺 Igor Levshin. Petruscha and Mosquito+
27 🇷🇴 Mircea Cărtărescu, Solenoid+
28 🇺🇸 John Madera, Nervosities (plan)
29 🇲🇦 Driss Chraïbi, Mother Comes of Age (plan)
30 🇷🇺 Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Daniel Stein, Interpreter (plan)
31 🇨🇭 Max Frisch, Selected works (plan)

June

32 🇦🇹 Clemens J. Setz, The Comfort of Round Things (plan)
33 🇷🇺 Andrei Platonov, Chevengur (plan)
34 🇷🇺 Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit (plan)
35 🇻🇳 Dương Thu Hương, Paradise of the Blind (plan)
36 🇪🇸 Ramon Llull, Blanquerna (plan)
37 🇪🇸 Miquel de Palol, The Garden of Seven Twilights (plan)

July

38 🇦🇷 Leopoldo Marechal, Adam Buenosayres (plan)
39 🇦🇷 Alberto Laiseca, Los Sorias (plan)
40 🇺🇸 Zalman Shneour, The Emperor and Rebbe (plan)
41 🇺🇸 Thomas Pynchon, Vineland (plan)

August

42 🇺🇸 Thomas Pynchon, Slow Learner (plan)
43 🇺🇸 Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge (plan)
44 🇺🇸 Evan Dara, The Lost Scrapbook (plan)
45 🇨🇳 Can Xue, Love in the New Millennium (plan)
 
Last edited:

Daniel del Real

Moderator
January

01 ???? Donald Keene, The Pleasures of Japanese Literature ****
02 ?? Kamo no Chōmei, Hōjōki: A Hermit's Hut as Metaphor ***+
03 ?? Yoshida Kenko, Tsurezuregusa: Essays in Idleness ***+
04 ?? Ihara Saikaku, The Life of an Amorous Woman ***
05 ?? Ueda Akinari, Ugetsu Monogatari: Tales of Moonlight and Rain ****+
06 ?? Dazai Osamu, The Flowers of Bufoonery ***+
07 ?? Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human *****
08 ?? Murata Sayaka, Convenience Store Woman ***+
09 ?? Oda Sakunosuke, The Sign of Times ****+
10 ?? Nakahara Chūya, The Poems ****+
11 ?? Mishima Yukio, Confessions of a Mask ***+

February

12 ?? Yosano Akiko, Fragments of Clouds ***+
13 ?? Ibuse Masuji, Black Rain ***+
14 ?? Tsuboi Sakae, Twenty-Four Eyes ***
15 ?? Kaneko Misuzu, Bitter Orange Flower ***
16 ?? Natsume Sōseki, Rooms and other brief writings ****
17 ?? Enchi Fumiko, Masks ****

March

18 ?? Nagai Kafū, Sumida River and other stories ****
19 ?? Natsume Sōseki, The Door ***
20 ?? Mandala, Japanese poetry from Shiki to our days ***+
21 ?? Tanizaki Jun'ichirō, The Love of a Fool ***+
22 ?? Kawabata Yasunari, First Snow on Fuji ****
23 ?? Abe Kōbō, The Face of Another **
24 ?? Murakami Haruki, The City and its Uncertain Walls ****+

April

25 ?? Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book ****+
 
Last edited:

Stevie B

Current Member
January

01 ???? Donald Keene, The Pleasures of Japanese Literature ****
02 ?? Kamo no Chōmei, Hōjōki: A Hermit's Hut as Metaphor ***+
03 ?? Yoshida Kenko, Tsurezuregusa: Essays in Idleness ***+
04 ?? Ihara Saikaku, The Life of an Amorous Woman ***
05 ?? Ueda Akinari, Ugetsu Monogatari: Tales of Moonlight and Rain ****+
06 ?? Dazai Osamu, The Flowers of Bufoonery ***+
The Donald Keene book seems to be an especially fitting one for you given your deep dive into Japanese literature these past few years.
 

Chandos MD

Member
January
?? Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis - Dom Casmurro
??/?? Gershom Scholem - Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
?? Émile Zola - Germinal
??Anton Chekhov - Selected Plays [Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard]
??Natsume Sōseki - Botchan
?? Rabindranath Tagore - The Home and the World
?? Henrik Ibsen - Brand
?? Henrik Ibsen - When We Dead Awaken
?? Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
?? Thomas Bernhard - Heldenplatz
?? Norbert Elias - The Loneliness of the Dying
?? Andrey Platonov - The Foundation Pit
?? Naguib Mahfouz - Midaq Alley

February
⚪ The Complete Plays of Sophocles [tr. Paul Roche]

March
⚪ Homer - The Iliad [tr. Robert Fitzgerald]
?? Raja Rao - Kanthapura
??????? Alasdair Gray - Poor Things
⚪ The Epic of Gilgamesh [tr. N.K. Sandars]
?? Søren Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling
?? Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
?? Arthur Schopenhauer - Essays and Aphorisms [selected from Parerga and Paralipomena]
?? Immanuel Kant - Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
?? Banerjee & Duflo - Poor Economics
?? Larry McMurtry - In a Narrow Grave
?? Jim Shutze - The Accommodation
?? Marguerite Duras - India Song
?? Marguerite Duras - Destroy, She Said

April
?? Amos Tutuola - The Palm-Wine Drinkard
?? Amos Tutuola - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
?? Vladimir Sorokin - Blue Lard
?? Henry James - The Beast in the Jungle
?? Patrick White - Voss
?? Billy Lee Brammer - The Gay Place
 
Last edited:

kpjayan

Reader
Jan

1. ?? Ghassan Zaqtan - Strangers in Light Coats : Selected Poetry 2014-2020 ***
2. ?? Quinn Slobodian - CrackUp Capitalism ***
3. ?? T Ramanathan - Sannidhi Samvadam ***
4. ?? Martin Wikramasinghe - The Village ( Uprooted #1 ) ***
5. ?? Yannis Ristos - Selected Poems ****
6. ?? Charles Siefe - Zero:The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. ***
7. ?? Ivan Mandy - Postcard from London and Other Stories. ***
8. ?? ( Tamil ) Imayam - Vazhga Vazhga and Other Stories ***
9. ?? Henryk Sienkiewicz - Quo Vadis. ****

Feb

10. ?? / ?? Emil Cioran - Short History of Decay *****
11. ?? TJS George - Askew :Short Biography of Bangalore ***
12. ?? Alfred Jarry. - Ubu Roi ***
13. ?? K Abhay - The Book of Bihari Literature ***
14. ?? Mariana Marin - Paper Children ***
15. ?? Salim Barakat - Come, Take a Gentle Stab ****
16. ?? Marie NDiaye - Ladivine ****
17. ?? Martin Wikramasinghe - Kaliyugaya ( Uprooted #2 ) ***
18. ?? Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera ***

Mar

19. ?? Mark De Silva - Point of Attack. ***
20. ?? Aubrey Menen - The Ramayana **
21. ?? ( Tamil ) Perumal Murugan - Fire Bird ***
22. ?? Peter Handke - The Great Fall ***
23. ?? Alan Paton - Cry the Beloved Country ****
24. ?? ( Kannada) H S Shivaprasad - I Keep Vigil of Rudra ****
25. ?? Martin Wikramasinghe - The Destiny ( Uprooted #3) ***
26. ?? ( Malayalam ) M Vinod+ - Natakam Vitachu Nadanna Oral ****

Apr

27. 🇮🇳 (Malayalam) Akhinathente Nidhi ( Kanthamala Charitham 1) - Vishnu M C **
28. 🇮🇳 (Malayalam) Arolakkadinte Rahasyam ( Kanthamala Charitham 2 ) - VishnuM C ***
29. 🇹🇭 Prabda Yoon - Moving Parts **
30. 🇮🇳 (Malayalam) Yudhakandam ( Kanthamala Charitham 3 ) - Vishnu M C ***
31. 🇵🇰 Kamran Gilani - Ana Al-Haq Reconsidered ***
32. 🇦🇹 Thomas Bernhard - Prose ****
33. 🇵🇹 Jose Saramago - The Year of the Death of Richardo Reis ****
34. 🇧🇷 Lima Barreto - The Decline and Fall of Policarpo. Quaresma ****
35. 🇮🇳 ( Kannada ) Masti Venkatesh Iyengar - Subbanna and Other Stories ***
36. 🇨🇦 Anne Michaels - Fugitive Pieces ****

May

37. ?? Thomas Mann - The Magic mountain
 
Last edited:

Leseratte

Well-known member
Keen to hear more about this one. High on my TBR
I am a fan of Saramago, but I interrupted the reading after about one third of the book, @Phil D. Why? I was bored about the lack of action. To much going up and down the streets of Lisbon, which may be interesting to someone that had already visited the city, but I´ve never been there. I was also irritated at the so typical treatment of women in the book: the maid was good for the bed, the bourgeoise girl was the candidate for marriage. Not even Fernando Pessoa appearing as a sort of familiar ghost in the hotel room was a compensation.

That said I may have missed the most important part of the book.
 

tiganeasca

Moderator
JANUARY
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Afterlives ⭐⭐⭐
Anatoly Rybakov, Children of the Arbat ⭐⭐⭐
Anatoly Rybakov, Fear ⭐⭐⭐
Duong Thu Huong, Novel Without A Name ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Theodor Storm, Carsten the Trustee and other stories ⭐⭐⭐+
Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit ⭐⭐⭐+
Lars Gustafsson, Stories of Happy People ⭐⭐+
Tidiane Dem, Masseni ⭐⭐+

FEBRUARY
Francis Bebey, King Albert ⭐⭐⭐
Cyprian Ekwensi, Burning Grass ⭐⭐⭐
Sinan Antoon, I'Jaam ⭐⭐
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Stories ⭐⭐⭐+
John Munonye, The Only Son ⭐⭐⭐
Jalâl âl-e Ahmad, The School Principal [not rated]
Lil Bahadur Chettri, Mountains Painted With Turmeric ⭐⭐⭐

MARCH
Cyprian Ekwensi, People of the City ⭐⭐
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Armijn Pane, Shackles ⭐⭐+
Thanassis Valtinos, Deep Blue Almost Black ⭐⭐⭐
Sembene Ousmane, God's Bits of Wood ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Joseph Roth, The Legend of the Holy Drinker ⭐⭐⭐+
Maria Dermoût, Yesterday ⭐⭐⭐+
Sarat Chandra Chatterji, Devdas and other stories ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rene Maran, Batouala ⭐⭐⭐
Endo Shusaku, Stained Glass Elegies [Stories] ⭐⭐⭐
Taban lo Liyong, Fixions ⭐⭐+
Vivek Shanbhag, Ghachar Ghochar ⭐⭐+
Halldor Laxness, Under the Glacier [not rated]

APRIL
Xiaolu Guo, Village of Stone ⭐⭐⭐⭐+
Tanizaki Junichiro, Some Prefer Nettles ⭐⭐⭐
Randolph Stow, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Abdulrazak Gurnah, Admiring Silence ⭐⭐+
Anjana Appachana, Incantations ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Duong Thu Huong, Memories of a Pure Spring ⭐⭐+
Mishima Yukio, The Sound of Waves ⭐⭐+
Elechi Amadi, The Concubine ⭐⭐⭐
Philippe Claudel, Dog Island ⭐⭐⭐⭐+
 
Last edited:

alik-vit

Reader
I am a fan of Saramago, but I interrupted the reading after about one third of the book, @Phil D. Why? I was bored about the lack of action. To much going up and down the streets of Lisbon, which may be interesting to someone that had already visited the city, but I´ve never been there. I was also irritated at the so typical treatment of women in the book: the maid was good for the bed, the bourgeoise girl was the candidate for marriage. Not even Fernando Pessoa appearing as a sort of familiar ghost in the hotel room was a compensation.

That said I may have missed the most important part of the book.
By the way, I had similar feelings. In 2005 or something I did read it first time. In 2018, after visiting Lisbon, I did read it again. And both times I was struck by its boredom. And usually I loved his novels! But it seems, female characters is his blind spot. And this recurring trop of affair between younger woman and older man...
 

Leseratte

Well-known member
By the way, I had similar feelings. In 2005 or something I did read it first time. In 2018, after visiting Lisbon, I did read it again. And both times I was struck by its boredom. And usually I loved his novels! But it seems, female characters is his blind spot. And this recurring trop of affair between younger woman and older man...
I think this manner of seeing female characters is perhaps not unusual in Portuguese culture, but I am cautious about it, @alik.
 
Top